Defending their Land, Protecting their Men: Palestinian Women's Non-violent Resistance after the Second Intifada

Dr. Sophie Richter-Devroe, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter

Nonviolent resistance has, following the recent uprisings in different Arab countries, received increased media and scholarly attention. Yet, the role that women and gender play in civil resistance movements remains understudied. In this presentation Dr. Richter-Devroe analyzes different forms, contexts and framings of Palestinian women’s protest activism after 2000, arguing that their acts can potentially bring about social and political change. Although so far unsuccessful in sustaining concrete material changes, women’s embodied protest politics, by radically challenging conventional male-dominated political discourse and practice, might provide visionary outlines of a non-masculinist, non-militarist, yet proactive form of political culture in Palestine.

Biography:

Sophie Richter-Devroe is a lecturer in Gender and Middle East Studies at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, Exeter University, with a broad research interest in gender theory and women’s activism in the Middle East. Her dissertation research (supervised by Prof. Gerd Nonneman and Dr. Ruba Salih) focused on gender and conflict transformation in the Palestinian Occupied Territories, looking at women’s participation in dialogue-based conflict resolution programs as well as in various forms of formal and informal resistance activism after 2000. She is an advanced student of the Arabic and Persian languages and has published translations and reviews of Arabic literary works as well as journal articles and book chapters on Palestinian and Iranian women’s activism. Her most recent publication is a special issue of the International Feminist Journal of Politics (IFJP) on 'Critically Examining UNSCR 1325' (co-edited with Dr. Nicola Pratt, Warwick University).

Organiser: Bloomsbury Gender Network hosted by the SOAS Centre for Gender Studies

Contact email: rs94@soas.ac.uk